The musician was found dead at his home near Dunmow, Essex. His bandmates confirmed he had taken his own life on their social media pages, while a spokesperson for Essex Police told NME his death was not being treated as suspicious.

Speaking at the premiere of the forthcoming Punk documentary in Los Angeles, Rotten – real name John Lydon– claimed that Keith had been left “alone” and “unloved” after the mammoth success of the band in the 1990s.

“My heart is broken for him. He was a good friend of mine,” said Lydon, visibly emotional.

“Nobody loved him and he was left alone and he got destroyed. Why do so many people in this industry be left alone? Come to me, I’m Johnny.”

Keith Flint

Lydon added to TMZ: “What you’ve got to understand is, were not looking after each other anymore … any of you out there, come talk to me. Alright? Come talk to me. We do not need to die.”

His tribute came as The Prodigy confirmed on Twitter that all future shows would be “cancelled with immediate effect”.

Following the tragic death of Keith Flint all forthcoming Prodigy shows will be cancelled with immediate effect.TheProdigyHQ pic.twitter.com/qxRiHYIPME